All Surrounded Part 20: Freeze! You’re All Surrounded

It’s done! We made it through to the very end!And everyone (almost) lives happily ever after. We should be super excited right? Be left with that warm gooey feeling that only a satisfying end to a really well done drama can give you? Except not so much.

At least for me.

While watching, and even afterwards I found myself just underwhelmed–not touched emotionally (unless irritation counts). For a drama with so much build up, with so many carefully crafted characters, this last episode should have been a slam dunk–but it wasn’t–and so here I am at the end of what I thought was a pretty freaking awesome drama, left with a bad aftertaste. (If you need a visual, my face is totally doing the “What is that smell?” look.)

I guess it had to be expected considering the only bits we had left to deal with were the ones with the big bad, who was such a cardboard, paint by numbers villain, that anything dealing with him rang over the top and unbelievable.

It’s entirely possible it’s the actor and his facial expressions.

If you have a character who doesn’t make sense given free reign over the episode, the list of “What the’s” is pretty large. Let’s list them.

What the? The look of laughter at the press conference to leave his job. Um. There is nothing to smile about here, buddy. Yes, by getting head of the story and resigning your position, you are using some misdirection in order to keep control of the situation. However, you are still in damage control, and there is no telling if this strategy is going to work. I don’t believe a character in that situation, in the midst of trying to grasp hold of everything he’s worked for as it slips from his fingers, would be so smug. I’m not sure if this a choice on the actor’s part or the production, but it was dumb and rang false.

What the? In the conversation with his daughter he said he manipulated her in order to get her to divorce her husband. WHY? What possible thing could he gain from this? While against his wishes, they were already married, and from the looks of it, while he didn’t like them, her husband spent his life toeing the party line. Better than having a divorced crazy woman on his hands, right? Was this just a line he was giving her or was this actual motivation? I’m hoping it was just a line as I’ve said, the other option is stupid. I guess we’ll never know, you know, because the writer didn’t really think it super necessary to give us a fleshed out bad guy.

What the? The villain now has a gang? A league of bad guys? Is he now also a mob guy in his spare time? Did he really think he was going to get away with killing the two detectives when he, and they, were all in the spotlight? Hmm… the detective who had been assaulted and possibly attempted to be murdered by the bad guy turns up dead? Yeah, YOU ARE GOING TO BE THEIR FIRST SUSPECT!

For a bad guy who had gotten so far in life he was pretty freaking stupid.

What the? The thugs just happened to know where the detectives were? How? Were they following them? If that was the case, wouldn’t it have been a good idea to clue in the lawyer? And why would the lawyer leave the phone there anyway? I guess a better question would be why wouldn’t he have destroyed it in the first place? But if he hurried back to make sure the phone was there, why wouldn’t he have taken it with him to either 1) give it to the bad guy or 2) for real destroy it this time?

Even at the very end, the bad guy was smiling. UGH.

Lets move on. You know what else irritated me? The flatness of the episode. It seemed like they were trying to fit in too many plot twists into the last episode, to give it the emotional impact it needed. They were definitely missing some beats, glossed over some parts, that we the audience needed and deserved to see:

Congressman’s Daughter getting out of the mental hospital. Last episode, the daughter had been hidden against her will in some hospital in order to let all the crimes be pinned on her. In this episode, she’s at the prosecutor’s office calmly (for her) answering questions. I know with the prosecutors office officially having to really investigate, Congressman was going to have to produce her–but I think we should have seen her being sprung–the questions she would have had for her family who locked her up.

Getting the case back from the prosecutors. It would have been very satisfying for, even if for a moment to be able to see inside the prosecutor’s office, seeing them have to give up the case. Without it, without even a look at the prosecutor who was in Congressman’s pocket, we are left with a sense that he got away with everything. This snafu should have dinged him in some way and it would have been pretty awesome to see it.

Confrontation between the husband and Congressman. For a character who has had several plot points based around him, the husband ended up being such a nothing character. Had he cared for Dae Gu’s mother? Did he really marry the woman for her money? For his position? It just doesn’t really seem to fit. The lack of a shown reaction from him makes his giving all the stocks to the employees during the shareholder meeting just seem so random. Yes, its a smooth move taking all of their power and money away from them in one swoop, but it removes the audience from the decision. This is a big moment, show it!

Dae Gu’s not-brother. I really dislike how they left this character hanging. He effectively lost everything in this drama, his mother is in jail, his grandfather is a multi-murderer, his father gave away the family wealth, where does this leave him? Throughout the drama, we grew fond of this funny kid and to just have his last time on screen be him sobbing after his mother–who didn’t really care about him? Low blow, man. In the epilogue of happiness, we should have had a shot of him. Wouldn’t it be great if we’d seen him trying to become a police officer?

And finally, the relationship between Detective Seo and Angry Lady Detective. For an aspect of the show that was given so much screen time in the early episodes, it does seem that this was left hanging in these last ones. Part of their issue was him always putting work before her and the family. But I’m not seeing him consulting her at any point after he swore to change. Yes, we got to see her go visit him in the country, and smiled at him, and that was nice of her to stick with him, but if he didn’t at least talk to her before doing the press conference, knowing how it would affect his life and thereby her life, it just doesn’t seem like he’s learned anything.

I’m not sure what is wrong with the scene between Dae Gu and Detective Seo. It had Dae Gu thanking Detective Seo for everything, had him finally giving the respect he deserved, showed that they both respected each other–but the scene was flat and didn’t pack the emotional punch I had expected it too.

But maybe I’m nit-picking.

I think what I’m going to do is give it a few days, let it settle, give myself some separation between this episode, and do a review of the series as a whole.

Notes

I love that at the end, Soo Sun is given the nickname, Sharp Eye. She has proven herself to be as strong a detective as her male counterparts. And while I wish it had been her who had busted back in with the fake gun to save Dae Gu, I’ve decided to not rant anymore, so I won’t mention it.

How did Detective Seo know where Dae Gu was? Was he following the group? Did Dae Gu know he was there? It doesn’t make sense! Wouldn’t it have made me sense for Soo Sun to have overpowered her guards and come back down? No. I’m not ranting anymore. Stop it.

I love how everyone was given their own happy ending, that they have all found their own way and settled into being detectives.

I love how this guy ended up not being a tool. I was going to mention it last episode, when I had expected him to take over the chief position and be an ass, but instead he was right there, unquestioningly helping them avenge her death, and the fact that he’s just turned out to be a nice guy, makes me happy.

Wasn’t that handy, being given the brand new equipment that managed to save the day right before they were abducted? Who didn’t see this coming? Sometimes the writer is so obvious, it irritates me. And I’m ranting again.

I’m also happy that Ji Kook had a moment to shine. His idea to get into the house by pretending to be the assistant, playing the lawyer and his sister, was just a fun time to watch and for a character, who hasn’t really had a lot to do throughout the drama, it was a nice touch.

Lee Seung Gi remains one of the better Kkissers out there. Hmm…this might idea may need a top 5 list… While I wasn’t super pleased with Soo Sun’s timid reaction (come on, you’ve been dating for a year), I’m happy we got one really good, couple lip-lock.

And to finish, I’m so happy the ended the episode with one final group shot of all our detectives in a hero shot, assured in their roles as detectives, being all bad-ass as they had off to solve their next crime. Now this is how I want to remember this drama.